Torrington turns attention to bullying in wake of football rape scandal

TORRINGTON >> Many Torrington city officials and parents say they're reserving judgment for those involved in cyber bullying two 13-year-old victims of an alleged rape until more facts are realized in the sexual assault investigation.

"I don't think that Torrington-ians are so obtuse that they don't think when their children are getting hurt, they don't take a look at it, but that will be up to parents," said Torrington Middle School parent, Bill Battle.

Toribio is charged with two counts of second-degree sexual assault and three counts of risk of injury to a minor, all felonies, related to two separate alleged incidents which occurred in the same "time period," according to police.

Gonzalez is charged with second-degree sexual assault and two counts of risk of injury to a minor, felonies. Gonzalez is also facing robbery charges, three felonies and two misdemeanors, in an unrelated alleged incident. A 17-year-old city male is charged with second-degree sexual assault related to the same two victims.

After Toribio and Gonzalez were arrested, teens took to Twitter to vent their feelings about the case, many calling the victim a "whore" or "snitch."

"This is one of those kinds of things, as a parent, (where) what I would say is this: let the police do their jobs and let the rest of us stand back and wait and see what happened. It's already a tragedy, and the tragedy might be more in the reaction than in the doing itself," said Battle.

Discussing the city's role in the case, Mayor Ryan Bingham said, "When the full extent of the details are available we'll make sure that if there are some deficiencies that come out in the process of handling this situation that they get corrected, but at this point it's a little too early to tell," said Bingham.

Asked if Battle believed there may be a systemic issue, Battle said, "No, not at all." He said, "I'll pay a little bit closer attention to my son," and "As parents we'll be able to see a little bit more what's going on."

Battle said, his "heart goes out," to Torrington Schools Superintendent Cheryl Kloczko. "She's in a situation where none of this happened on campus but, still, all of (it) is in her purview," he said.

However, not all parties agree.

"The Susan B. Anthony people came in last year and did a whole bunch of seminars," said head boys basketball coach Eric Gamari. "Some of the kids believe it and some of them don't," he said.

"Once it hit the paper it was a very, very, very powerful story, and to me the story begs for the board of education to examine to root causes of what happened in all of these instances; to see if there are root causes; to see if they are somehow endemic to how we are running our sports programs in Torrington," said board of education member Paul Cavagnero.

Cavagnero noted he believed that chairman of the board and superintendent, "are acting very professionally protecting the board of education and the community."

Most questions were met with a wall of silence.

Superintendent Cheryl Kloczko did not respond to multiple phone calls.

"We have been instructed by the superintendent not to talk to anybody," said a Torrington Athletics coach.

Kenneth Traub, the chairman of the Torrington Board of Education, said that "Due to the sensitivity of the age of the children," the board would not comment on the matter any further.

Vice chair for the Torrington Board of Education, Fiona Cappabianca, said she avoided the papers and could not comment because, "The board of education has to remain impartial for potential expulsion hearings, and no just ours its statewide." She added, "We have to protect the confidentiality of all students in our district."

Board of Education member John Kissko declined to comment, saying that, "under the bylaws of the board, he's our spokesman." Referring to Traub, Kissko said, "If he's not going to say anything..."